Two survivors of the Holocaust will address the England players at The Grove
next week in preparation for the squad’s visit to Auschwitz after arriving
in Poland for the European Championships on June 6.

Leading the squad: Roy Hodgson and his team will visit Auschwitz before they get their Euro 2012 campaign underwayPhoto: GETTY IMAGES

By Henry Winter and Jeremy Wilson

7:15AM BST 23 May 2012

The Holocaust Educational Trust has arranged for the two survivors to talk to the players, who will be based in Krakow, 30 miles from Auschwitz.

Based in London, the HET has a mission statement “to educate about the Holocaust and its contemporary relevance”, adding that “survivor testimony forms a key component of effective Holocaust education by putting a human face to history’’.

England have been to Auschwitz before when Glenn Hoddle was manager, but the Football Association, commendably, is keen for the current squad to visit such important places rather than cut themselves off as they did in South Africa during the last World Cup.

New England manager Roy Hodgson and his recently appointed coaching assistant Gary Neville will today hold their first full ­training session with the England players when the squad assembles in Manchester to prepare for Saturday’s friendly in Norway.

Neville comes to the job with high praise for his work as a television analyst, but Roy Keane, the long-time club captain of Neville at Manchester United, has tempered the expectation surrounding his former team-mate.

“Gary can talk a bit but don’t think for one minute he was as influential in the dressing room as people might think he was,” Keane said.

“Gary would say his piece but he wasn’t running the show – far from it – so don’t think for one minute he will be going into England and calling the shots. He will be learning his trade and being a link between the manager and the players.”

The England squad, minus the Chelsea contingent who are resting and Wayne Rooney, who has a minor injury, will also train at the Etihad Stadium on Thursday, before flying to Oslo on Friday.

Liverpool right-back Martin Kelly will also travel to Norway to get a taste of international football. The players, albeit without Kelly, will reconvene next Tuesday, when they will be joined by Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard, John Terry, Gary Cahill and Rooney, ahead of the friendly at Wembley against Belgium on June 2.

Keane, who is on the ITV panel for Euro 2012, expressed his surprise that Neville will continue as a TV pundit and stressed that the demands of coaching would be very different. “He probably won’t be as critical as me on TV,” Keane said. “I know Gareth Southgate as the FA’s head of elite development does it, but he’s not in the dressing room, he’s not on the training pitch, he’s not working with the players.

“There’s lot of thumbs up, everyone says it is a good appointment but I’d say let’s wait and see. He’s not done any coaching before. I know he has done his coaching qualifications but sitting in a studio talking about teams is very different. What he has got of course is he’ll be working under Roy Hodgson and Roy’s assistant. He can learn his trade. Just like with anyone who is appointed to any job, only time will tell.”

As well as Neville, the next six weeks will also represent a huge opportunity for Liverpool striker Andy Carroll, who was selected despite scoring only four Premier League goals this season.

Carroll is likely to be competing with Danny Welbeck to start in place of Rooney in England’s first Euro 2012 match against France on June 11. Alan Shearer suggested that England will need the right system to bring the best out of Carroll.

“People forget that the whole system at Newcastle was designed for Andy,” said Shearer. “Full-back got the ball, moved it out, whipped it up to Andy and whether he flicked it on or held it up, right side or left side of midfield got it and he whipped it in the box.”